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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22374601">Gravitas</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NepgyaHeart/pseuds/NepgyaHeart'>NepgyaHeart</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cocky Narrator gets Taken Down a Notch, Connected Drabbles, Gen, One Shot, POV First Person, Pokemon Battles, Pokemon Champions - Freeform, Present Tense, Sad Ending, Unhealthy obsession with winning, What is a Champion?, Winning And Losing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:07:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,211</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22374601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NepgyaHeart/pseuds/NepgyaHeart</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I love winning. I won against the champion and took his title because I could. There was this girl who came in every other day, imploring me for a rematch. Each battle, I won. Until I didn't. And suddenly I was the one on my knees, begging her for a rematch every day. | A champion's rise to and fall from grace told in drabbles.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Gravitas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I love winning. Nothing gets my heart pounding quite like it. With my partner on the battlefield and me at the command, we're unbeatable.</p>
<p>Seeing my partner stand tall as his opponent crumples to the ground… Seeing the devastated, despairing face of my opponent… Feeling the rush of satisfaction of being <em>better</em> than the loser…</p>
<p>It's euphoric.</p>
<p>My smile is inevitable, my sympathies nonexistent. I revel in it.</p>
<p>My partner and I are the winners. Together we aim for the champion's throne.</p>
<p>And if we lose along the way, we'll hunt down the victor until we have the last laugh.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>I stand on a battlefield opposite the current champion, known for his composure and stone face.</p>
<p>He's on the floor, clutching his head and screaming in agony, face redder than I thought humanly possible, completely wet with sweat and tears. His last pokémon drags himself across the ground after getting knocked out in one fell swoop by mine.</p>
<p>Come on, he had to have done this to someone else to get his title. If he wanted to keep it so badly, he should have fought harder.</p>
<p>As they hold each other and weep, I smile and take my rightful crown.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>Being champion isn't all it's cracked up to be. I hold the title for a full week before someone shows up to challenge me. Apparently people looked forward to more bouts with the previous champ. As if I'm not good enough? I'm better than him!</p>
<p>My first challenger is some starry-eyed kid boasting about how he's been waiting his whole life for this moment. I quickly bring him back down to Earth.</p>
<p>He loses after I send my third pokémon out. And I didn't say anything about fainting. How did this guy beat the Elite Four gauntlet? What a joke.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>My sixth unique challenger makes me think. Every championship bout I've watched always ended with the two trainers shaking hands and the challenger promising, "I'll be back for a rematch. Next time, I will win."</p>
<p>I've yet to experience that. So far, everyone runs off and doesn't come back. I don't get it. I beat them. What more do they want, for me to throw the battle? Not my fault they suck. What'd they do, if not beg for a rematch? Did they just give up?</p>
<p>Then they shouldn't have challenged me in the first place. Just wasted my time.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>It really is boring to be the greatest at something. The occasional challenger comes and goes, but nothing else. I haven't felt the thrill of victory since I took the champ's throne. No one is good enough to be my rival.</p>
<p>One day, another challenger comes through. She doesn't say much, doesn't even introduce herself. Just stands opposite me with her head held high.</p>
<p>She doesn't interest me too much, so I try to get it over with ASAP.</p>
<p>I win, obviously. And once I do, she bows and says, "Thank you."</p>
<p>Before I ask for her name, she's gone.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>She comes back not one week later asking for a rematch. The result, of course, is the same. And again, she bows and thanks me.</p>
<p>She's back two days later. I win again. We clash again after two more days. Then another two. And another. Is she insane?</p>
<p>I still don't know her name, much less the reason behind her persistence. I admit, she and her team's got strength and strategy down. I've come to enjoy and appreciate our matches. No one else has battled me like this.</p>
<p>But no matter how much I respect her, I will never lose.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>It's all wrong. Impossible. I must be having a nightmare.</p>
<p>As we were having another bout, somehow I ended up looking the fool. My last pokémon lay on the floor with all but his head encased in ice, unconscious.</p>
<p>Only then do I remember that this girl is after my throne.</p>
<p>Somewhere along the way, I ended up just seeing her as a losing rival and nothing more.</p>
<p>She and her pokémon rejoice as I can't help but fall to my knees. It has to be a fluke, right? This was just a friendly match, right?</p>
<p>I didn't lose… right?</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>I don't attend the succession ceremony to hand down my title. I refuse to believe I lost. But the League does it for me, apparently.</p>
<p>During the ceremony, I camp outside the champion's room with my mind completely blank. Eventually, she arrives. I throw myself into <em>my</em> chamber and stand on the opponent's spot on <em>my </em>battlefield. What a joke.</p>
<p>We release our first pokémon simultaneously. She offers me a smile and greeting. She finally tells me her name, but I don't care enough to hear it.</p>
<p>The battle begins.</p>
<p>And somehow I am the one leaving the champion's room.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>Once my pokémon are healed, I go straight back to her. Except there are a couple of trainers there already waiting to challenge her. Already so popular? Reluctantly, I wait my turn.</p>
<p>She greets me with the same smile and introduction as earlier. I hear none of it.</p>
<p>And somehow I lose again.</p>
<p>The next day, I demand a rematch. Then the next. And the next. And the next.</p>
<p>It makes no sense. How could she finally best me after all the times I won over her? Did she lose on purpose back then just to humiliate me like this?</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>I pull out all the stops for her.</p>
<p>I wasted so many waking hours training with my pokémon. That wasn't the issue.</p>
<p>I burned my money from winning championship matches on a key stone and mega stone collection from someone in Kalos. I got scammed. They were all fakes.</p>
<p>I chased the asshole that emptied my wallet down. Idiot didn't relocate his business after suckering me. I bought the real goods with what I took back. This wasted too many days I could have spent challenging her.</p>
<p>And I still couldn't win.</p>
<p>Why is this happening? It makes no sense.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>The world stops spinning as I step into the champion's chamber. Instead of her, there's a different woman inside.</p>
<p>The new champion, she claims she is.</p>
<p>Bullshit.</p>
<p>There's no way that girl lost. There's no way she lost her title. There's no way she didn't win a match with some nobody.</p>
<p>There's no way she didn't lose to me.</p>
<p>The new champ says otherwise. She offers me a battle.</p>
<p>I don't even remember how long I was champion. Screw the title. Who cares? I don't as long as that girl is still out there and I haven't bested her again.</p>
<p>
  <strong>~X~</strong>
</p>
<p>I waste I don't even know how long searching for that girl. She disappeared after losing her title and face.</p>
<p>I refuse to let her go on without losing to me. I don't have anything else to shoot for. Wasted my fortune on rocks, never had any friends, and don't have any other talents besides battling...</p>
<p>And I won't become champion again. As long as it isn't her I win against, I'll refuse the title. Doesn't matter if the current champ is stronger than her. Doesn't matter if they're the strongest trainer in the world.</p>
<p>I'll only accept beating her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This started off as just the first drabble as an exercise in less is more, which I need. Then I just ran with it, and I think it turned out pretty interesting.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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